Official Review: The Buck Pass by T.R Whittier

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[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Buck Pass" by T.R Whittier.]

The Buck Pass follows the story of a dollar bill as it takes an unlikely path through the hands of six very different people, inspiring each of them to change their lives for the better. This book is the first novel by T.R. Whittier; the author also has a blog called The Whittier Side of Life where she occasionally posts updates on her life and publishes short poems and prose.

The title “The Buck Pass” rather cleverly plays on the phrase “to pass the buck” meaning “to refuse responsibility”. The inspiration for this book came from the Authors dissatisfaction in her day job when less the helpful co-workers would deny responsibility for common problems. The Authors intention with this book is for the poor connotation of the phrase to be changed allowing the passing of a buck to be seen in a new light. In a blog post about the book T.R. Whittier writes, “What if, I thought, a buck pass could be a good thing? What if a common, everyday object, such as a single dollar bill, could pass through people’s lives and bring them joy rather than an unwanted burden?”

With New York City as the back drop, T.R. Whittier weaves six good short stories into a compelling, somewhat romantic novel. The use of the dollar bill along with the repetition of a number of key locations and secondary characters gives the book a sense of connectedness and continuity to what would otherwise be completely separate stories. To my mind, the Author shows a great degree of skill in having pulled six short stories into a coherent novel. Each story has a full character arc, build up of tension and a resolution befitting of each character. Thanks to the continued use of settings and secondary characters, earlier main characters are referred back to, almost as success stories, although none of the characters realise the dollar bill connection between each other.

I do have two tiny, small “buts”, they are perhaps things that would not be noticed in the average romance novel with only one set of protagonists, but.... ALL of the main characters are apparently Grecian gods when it comes to conventional beauty. Unfortunately this becomes a bit cliché by the time we get to the sixth protagonist, and it detracts slightly from the realism of the book. The second “but” most certainly does not apply to the entire book, though I think it should be mentioned. As the main theme of the book is making better life choices, it must be said that one should be careful of judging which lifestyles are better than others. A pattern I noticed, although I may be being over critical, was the tendency for female characters to believe that their life would be much better if only they had a (stereotypical, masculine) man. I found the implied commentary that nobody can be happy without a partner slightly troubling, particularly as six out of six protagonists were cis-gender heterosexuals. In an otherwise perfectly crafted novel, the reinforcement of social norms was jarring to my mind, although I fully realise most people would not notice. This is not something I would want the Author to change about “The Buck Pass” now, just something to consider for future works.

As an interesting, clever piece of modern literature, this book deserves a 4 out of 4 star rating. It should appeal to most audiences as we can all relate to the pursuit of happiness; however the book does have some slightly graphic sexual descriptions so it is definitely geared towards adult audiences.

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Buy "The Buck Pass" on Amazon